Recent advances in wireless technologies and enterprise networks have made it increasingly desirable to provide secure remote access to enterprise services, such as e-mail, voice mail, web access, and presence-based services, to users who may be traveling, telecommuting or otherwise in a location remote from the enterprise itself. For example, such users will generally want to be able to access an enterprise e-mail server or voice messaging system (VMS) from a mobile device, such as a mobile telephone or personal digital assistant (PDA). It is apparent that substantial improvements in productivity can be achieved by extending enterprise services to the mobile environment, at least in part through more efficient communication and collaboration among teams, groups and organizations.
Unfortunately, conventional techniques have been unable to provide desired levels of security and efficiency for remote access to enterprise services. For example, mobile network operators currently allow corporate clients to access certain corporate services, such as e-mail and voice mail, through mobile telephones. However, these and other conventional arrangements are unduly limited in terms of the particular enterprise services, device configurations, communication protocols and access mechanisms that can be supported, and in certain cases may provide a level of security that is completely inadequate for communication of highly confidential business information.
Accordingly, a need exists for solutions that allow enterprises to extend customized services to a wide array of different types of mobile devices while maintaining full control over access to their networks.